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Celes · 01-20-2011 07:56 PM

This is Day 21 and the last day of Live a Healthier Life in 21 Days Challenge. Subscribe to the free newsletter for lifetime access of personal development articles and future challenge announcements like this one.

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Welcome - today is Day 21 and the final day of 21DHL Challenge :hug:

I congratulate you for getting to this day and going through the whole 21-day challenge. No matter what happened in the process, whether there was a day when you felt you slipped up, whether you didn't follow to your plan to the extent you envisioned, or whether you didn't stick to a habit as much as you wanted, YOU are already a winner. Because you are in a better place today than if you completely did not sign-up or take part in 21DHL at all. You are already more aware of your own health/fitness needs, of what it takes to become a healthier, better person, of how it's like to eat properly/work out properly, and how good it feels when you stick to your health goals/plans. All these are the very important seeds that have been planted through the challenge, seeds that will now on germinate, grow and create huge changes in your life.

I started 21DHL because I saw health and fitness as an important priority in our life that should not be neglected. I know many of you are truly serious about your growth and what it really takes is some form of platform, a catalyst, a trigger point so we can get to act on our health and fitness goals proper. And we have. Like all of you, I joined in 21DHL with my own health and fitness goals. In the end, I gained so much in the past 21 days for my health/fitness than I could ever imagine. I have:

Overcame a bingeing problem that had been in my life for the past years
Improved my relationship with food
Experienced big changes in my health, vitality and wellness
Learned to prepare my own meals that I truly love
Learned more about how to sustain on my raw diet when I go raw next time
Learned more about my body's nutritional needs and making my ideal meal plans that perfectly meet these needs
Increased my activity level daily and made exercising fun for myself such that I want to do it regularly
Got to know all of you, whom I've never got a chance to know personally, thanks to you being part of the community

As today is the last day for 21DHL, let us now take a step back and review our past 21 days. This is not the last official post for 21DHL - tomorrow, I'll create a 21DHL Round-Up post to get all of your feedback - how your 21DHL experience has been, what you've gotten out of these 21 days, what was the best thing you liked about the entire challenge, and what you'd like to see moving forward. Stay tuned for this tomorrow!

21DHL Final Day - Review & Your Best Health Ahead

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1) Finish Up All 21-Day Tasks Before Continuing On

The 21DHL experience is about *both* completing our 21-day action plan as well as discovering new things about our health & our self through the 21-day tasks specially set aside for all of you. There are new things to be learned about us with each task, however small they seem. Have you completed all tasks for the 21 days? If not, fall in line with them now.

2) Reflect on Your Past 21 Days

For the next few minutes, think about how the past 21 days has been for you, in the area of your health and fitness. Think about your experiences with your 21-day action plan, your intentions when you started this challenge and your status right now.

On a scale of 1-10, give yourself an overall score on how you've done for the past 21-days. Why did you give that score?
What have you accomplished/achieved for yourself in the past 21 days in the challenge?
What are the biggest things you have learned about yourself and about living a healthier life in the past 21-days?

3) Your Healthy Living Plan Ahead

During 21DHL, we had our 21-Day Action Plans to guide us. Now moving forward, let's now plan for our health & fitness ahead.

What are your key goals for your health and fitness moving forward? You can list down overall goals or break them down into the 3 key areas of (a) Diet (b) Fitness © Lifestyle
What are your key action steps to 100% ensure that you'll achieve these goals? I.e. HOW are you going to achieve the goals you wrote in #1? Look back at what you've done/learned from the past 21 days and apply them as much as possible.

Final Day of Your 21-Day Action Plan

What are your 21DHL tasks listed for today? Do them with excellence and report them in your 21DHL Journal! Also, read your group mates' 21DHL journals and cheer them along! Pick a few members' journals and make it a point to post meaningful replies there.

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Francisco · 01-20-2011 09:22 PM

First of all thank you Celes, this have been an awesome start of the new year and all thanks to you so...little dance for ya :dance:

jojojojoj.

Well I´ll give myself an 8 score, ´cause I did flunk some days, but all in all it has been a wonderful ride...

Biggest acomplishments:

- Quit cigs, it´s like I don´t need to smoke, it must be ´cause I´m more aware thanks to the daily meditation.
- I´m a smoothie junky now. Before the challenge I didn´t even ate fruits.
- I´m about to change decades in, but this girl told me that she thought I was 23....that´s pretty awesome

- Now I drink a lot of water and have a morning ritual tha power up my mornings and make me feel energized the all day.

Next steps:

- Going for raw foods.
- Become a Yoga Instructor.
- Barefoot running seriusly

Thanks everybody for the good tips and your great attitude in life.

Peace!

kwar21 · 01-21-2011 02:55 AM

Thank You so much Cele, you rock!

I would also give myself an 8, because I think I did pretty well, but there were some times that I could have exercised more self discipline.

Biggest Accomplishments:
- sticking to my plan
- I actually want to now eat what's on my list because I have more energy than when I eat the stuff that is not on my list
- I've decreased the amount and the frequency in which I drink
- I feel so much better and chose to do things more active, i.e. taking the stairs instead of the elevator etc.
- I find myself working and then still having energy to do something else active, where as before I was usually tired after a workout or an activity
- I have lost 12 lbs and kept it off

Next Steps:
- I want to lose 8 more lbs and keep them off
- I want to have a life that consists of more active activities versus just always going out and drinking with my friends, I'm going to try and accomplish that by:
1. getting some things in order with my career so that I can go to bikram 3 times a week instead of just 1
2. getting back into dancing
3. signing up for our spring sand volleyball team, and going to games more regularly

Glenn · 01-21-2011 10:44 AM

Hi Celes, congratulations on all you have achieved yourself in this challenge!! :dance:

You've done really well by the sound of it

I'll post mine later today with some new photos, I'm just a bit busy right now.

By the way, how have you managed to make the switch to 100% raw without the concern of going out with friends and not eating the cooked food?

Celes · 01-21-2011 10:46 AM

Glenn Wrote:Hi Celes, congratulations on all you have achieved yourself in this challenge!! You've done really well by the sound of it
...
By the way, how have you managed to make the switch to 100% raw without the concern of going out with friends and not eating the cooked food?

Hey Glenn! Thanks a lot! I just pack my meals out nowadays and eat from my lunch box (or dinner box depending on the time of the day)

Quite a simple solution really; it just occurred to me quite naturally right before I was going out to meet a friend!

Thulemin · 01-21-2011 03:11 PM

Hi Celes!

As everyone is saying / thinking, thanks a lot!! You're right about us just needing a push to start doing something we've always considered. I'm trying to give that push to friends in everyday life when they need it, but it's difficult finding someone to give ME that push, as they already think I'm over-active & doing awesome

I would give myself an 8 too, which is better than the 6.5 I gave myself at the end of the first week

Goals I have achieved:

- Waking up at 6.30am about 80% of the time (I work freelance & don't need to wake up early). Woke up once at 8.30am and thought "wow, it's late already" when I would have thought "wow, I'm waking up early" one month ago
- Setting up a morning ritual with 10-min stretching & 3-parts light work-out (push-ups, abs & jumps) before breakfast
- Drinking 2L a day of water (plus others such as tea, juices etc)
- Stopped coffee & alcohol

But my biggest achievement is maybe that I managed to motivate different friends to meet 3 times a week to train for parkour together. It's difficult as it's a sport you train for without a teacher & it requires lots of trials & mistakes before you nail the movements. Those friends are all 20y/o guys who have different schedules but I sticked to motivating them & calling... We trained 5 times in the last 2 weeks and it's slowly gaining momentum :dance:

I generally feel stronger, especially after the morning work-out when I can feel my whole body & I'm totally aware of it. I successfully went from 2 to 8 push-ups in 3 weeks also :dance:

Goals to look forward to now:

- Go to bed earlier & find a way to add power naps to my days, so that I can go from 80% to 100% at 6.30am
- Cook more raw foods when I eat at home
- Slowly integrate more running in my weekly schedule. Organizing the parkour group was to difficult to enable me to go running when I wanted to...
- Keep on trying to meditate at the end of the afternoon

Keep the good work everybody!!

Francisco · 01-22-2011 05:08 AM

(01-21-2011 02:55 AM)kwar21 Wrote: I would also give myself an 8, because I think I did pretty well, but there were some times that I could have exercised more self discipline.

Those are nice next steps, spcecially Bikram, I´m currently doing Ashtanga at mornings and is just awesome...gives you energy, awareness and peace!

Congrats on your 8 score and let´s make a 10... =)

(01-21-2011 03:11 PM)Thulemin Wrote: Hi Celes!

As everyone is saying / thinking, thanks a lot!! You're right about us just needing a push to start doing something we've always considered. I'm trying to give that push to friends in everyday life when they need it, but it's difficult finding someone to give ME that push, as they already think I'm over-active & doing awesome

I would give myself an 8 too, which is better than the 6.5 I gave myself at the end of the first week

Another 8...Awesome, let´s make it a 10 =)

Wow, Parkour is powerful, pure energy and body control..good luck on that. I also have a morning ritual and let me give you just a little tip. After you drink your water, get a bowl with boiled water, put some mint on it and breath alllll that steam.... It really cleans your nose and lung...you get to breath better....

Keep it on!

Peace

Maji · 01-22-2011 06:40 AM

Reflect on Your Past 21 Days

(1.) On a scale of 1-10, give yourself an overall score on how you've done for the past 21-days. Why did you give that score?
Hard to say. I was so ill that it was impossible to do much. I’ll have to abstain from this one.

(2.) What have you accomplished/achieved for yourself in the past 21 days in the challenge?

established an evening routine where I
-- floss
-- brush my teeth with baking soda (a whitening agent)
-- rinse my sinuses with a Neti pot
found the Zumba workout that I love so much I’ll do it just for the fun of it
discovered that restaurant meals are ridiculously high in calories

(3.) What are the biggest things you have learned about yourself and about living a healthier life in the past 21-days?

that I don’t need to count calories – I know what foods/drinks I need to fuel my body
that I need to get outside to keep fit. I hate exercising with a video or an indoor machine.

Your Healthy Living Plan Ahead

(1.) What are your key goals for your health and fitness moving forward? You can list down overall goals or break them down into the 3 key areas of
(a.) Diet
-- maintain what I’m already doing

(b.)Fitness
-- learn the basic Zumba moves
-- join a tennis class

(c.) Lifestyle
-- reestablish morning routine now that I’m recovering from my illness

(2.) What are your key action steps to 100% ensure that you'll achieve these goals?

(a.)Diet
-- plan meals
-- eat regular snacks to prevent desperation eating (when I’m too hungry to prepare something and just gobble up whatever’s convenient)
-- make better choices at restaurants

(b.) Fitness
-- incorporate the Zumba workout into my weekly schedule
-- reduce strength straining to twice a week to give myself more recovery time

(c.) Lifestyle
-- make sure I know what I’m going to have for breakfast before going to bed
-- make sure the cat dishes are emptied and cleaned before bed

angielee · 01-22-2011 07:10 AM

Thanks everyone for your encouragement along the way! I'm starting to feel much more stronger and healthier each day! As a way to finalize this challenge, I'm running in a 5K race tomorrow morning! Woo-hoo!!! :dance:

ozcaveman · 01-22-2011 09:28 AM

On a scale of 1-10, give yourself an overall score on how you've done for the past 21-days. 7

Why did you give that score? I tallied up the goals achieved and not achieved and got 8 out of 12.

What have you accomplished/achieved for yourself in the past 21 days in the challenge? Started losing weight, cut down the coffee, eat less calories, feel better about my health knowing I am headed in the right direction for health improvements.

What are the biggest things you have learned about yourself and about living a healthier life in the past 21-days? I am very busy and it is hard to establish habits of "easy" things like 10 minutes of daily meditaiton or exploring Tai Chi exercises at home. I will schedule these activities one at a time, so for example I will have a 21 day meditation habit, then a 21 day breathing habit or maybe have a combined meditation/breathing/Tai chi challenge!

I started this challenge with 12 goals. I have rearranged them into ACHIEVED and NOT YET

Achieved
1. Drink 2.0 L water each day - drinking 2.5 litres daily!
4. Go on 2 long lunchtime walks during the week. yes except for this week because I was running a training course
6. Healthy, natural food for lunches at work (I am tracking the calories I consume and eating lots of fruit)
7. Restrict coffee to 2 a day, and continue to enjoy Chinese tea - i wanted to reduce consumption not eliminate and I have done this.
9. Cut out sugary foods and reduce carbs. I stopped eating sweets and chocolates.
10. Alcohol - limit my intake. I prefer not to drink alcohol as it clouds my thinking but I do enjoy the occasional quality drink.
11. Reach target weight of 82.0 kg by 30th June 2011. - i have reached 88.1 kg - a loss of 1.8 kg since the beginning of January. Weight loss was my number one priority on the challenge.
12. Reduce calorie (KJoule) intake to 1900 a day

Not yet
2. Get up at 5.30 each day and get to bed by 10.30 - today I woke up at 5.00 but I ensure I have 6 - 7 hours sleep. Will try daily wake up at 5.30 as a separate trial with no alarm clock on Saturday. See if I can naturally wake up at 5.30
3. Meditation - daily routine - some explorations (make this is a new challenge)
5. Use my weights and stretch cord for daily weight training and stretching
8. Daily breathing exercises and voice exercises (make this a new challenge as it is important for my speaking voice)

What are your key goals for your health and fitness moving forward?
(a) Diet
- Continue to track my daily calories, water, coffee/tea, alcohol to reach targets of one one alcohol day a week, 2 coffee/tea daily.
(b) Fitness
- Schedule my Meditation, Tai Chi and Breathing exercises
- Schedule my Weights and Stretching exercises
© Lifestyle
- Early rising - 6 hours sleep.

Scheduling these tasks in my daily planner will make them happen. Previously I hadnt bothered to track them,

What are your 21DHL tasks listed for today?
- Long walk this afternoon
- Start my weight and stretching exercises
- Do a meditation

tperez330 · 01-22-2011 09:52 AM

I'd say an 8 overall for me. Why? I pretty much stuck to my plan for 17 out of the 21 days which is about 80%. Nerd alert right?

However, I have lost 6 lbs over the challenge, about 2 lbs per week and hope to keep losing each week until I reach my goal weight. Thanks again Celes for hosting this challenge! And thanks to everyone who took the time to pass on a note of support and encouragement, believe me you made a difference for me! :hug:

lee jones · 01-23-2011 12:10 PM

Hi Celeste,

I will give myself a 7. Was able to change some habits for the better, that were long overdue. First and foremost, this journey does not end here, but will continue. My goal of losing 40 pounds is reachable by Memorial day.

My diet - now consist of veggies and poultry. Only eat meat once a week now. Water is the beverage of choice and sip on tea instead of coffee. I no longer have an urge for cookies, pasta and sodas.

Fitness - Do 30 minutes of movement a day, whether the elliptical or lifting weights. When the weather warms up, will be walking the walk.

What have I learned? That finally, I can restrict and still lose weight. I really don't need those extra calories found in sweets, sauces and extra helpings. I actually feel good and should have started a long time ago.

Forging forward to live a better life by changing my lifestyle. :happy:

Steve · 01-23-2011 11:59 PM

Hi Celes,

thank you for this wonderful experience. glomp

I changed serveral think in my daily life an I'm looking forward for the 1. April

Steve

Kita · 01-24-2011 07:07 AM

Thanks Celes for your time to run the 21 day challenge - I learnt a lot and I'm feeling the benefits of a healthier life already. I'm getting the right amount of water, I'm exercising regularly, and I finally understand how calories work and how many I need in a day. Your blog is inspiring and I'm thoroughly enjoying going through all the interesting articles you've written. Again, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!". Looking forward to the April challenge...

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